Maybe not. I lived in Brussels for two years (which has a very similar climate to Seattle) and my wife and I both remarked that "Brussels needs a good scrubbing

Maybe not. I lived in Brussels for two years (which has a very similar climate to Seattle) and my wife and I both remarked that "Brussels needs a good scrubbing" compared to Paris. All the buildings looked just a tad dingy, even the glass boxes over at the European Commission.